Two public land access groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ position that corner crossing is “unlawful” in Montana.
The Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Public Land Water Access Association raised public participation and public trust doctrine claims in their 34-page filing before the Lewis and Clark County District Court. The plaintiffs also take issue with the state’s interpretation of trespassing statutes, a central piece of the legal dispute surrounding corner crossing.
The groups are asking the court to reverse FWP’s guidance on the issue, arguing that it “is in conflict with existing legal authority, is not based on an established statute or common law precedent in this state, is an abrogation of the state’s public trust duties, and is in direct conflict with the recent adjudication of the merits of this issue” in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The “public trust duties” refers to a centuries-old legal doctrine holding that state lands and natural resources such as wildlife “shall be held in trust for the people.”
Corner crossing is the act of stepping from adjoining corners of public land where alternating sections of public and private land exist in a checkerboard pattern. Corner crossing has generated increasing interest in the West after digital mapping company OnX published a 2022 report revealing 8.3 million acres of “corner-locked” land in the U.S., 871,000 of which are in Montana.
A trio of state and federal rulings siding with four Missouri hunters who crossed corners to access public land during a hunt in Wyoming accelerated interest in the topic, as did Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ insistence that the practice “remains unlawful in Montana.”
“Our lawsuit challenges that administrative overreach and seeks a durable path forward for abiding citizens to hunt and access their shared public lands while ensuring private property rights are respected,” the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers said in a Thursday statement posted on Facebook.
FWP did not respond to a request for comment on the litigation.
John Sullivan, a member of BHA’s board, told Mountain Journal that a memo defendant FWP issued in January 2026 gave public-land access advocates like himself the opportunity to push for clarity on the issue. It’s provided BHA something “concrete to push back against,” he said.
“We’re asking the judge to essentially nullify that memo,” Sullivan said. “That’s step one. Step two would be to ask, essentially, while we’re here, let’s take a look at corner crossing and solve it once and for all.”
The plaintiffs also raised a right-to-participate claim in the lawsuit, arguing that the FWP memo violates the Montana Administrative Procedure Act because the agency issued it without public notice and comment. The directive “exceeds the statutory authority of FWP,” the groups argue.
Sullivan added that he’s supportive of an effort by two Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Josh Seckinger of Bozeman and Sen. Ellie Boldman of Missoula, to introduce a bill during the next legislative session to legalize the process.
“I don’t care how it gets done,” Seckinger said when asked to respond to the lawsuit. “Let’s get it done.”
The suit comes the day after Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras gave a presentation to a legislative committee describing corner crossing as an illegal act because it amounts to trespassing in the airspace above a private landowner’s property. She pointed to a recently passed state law that makes it illegal for a drone operator to fly fewer than 200 feet above a landowner’s property without securing the owner’s permission.
“I think the law is absolutely clear in Montana: the owner has the right to the surface and the airspace above it,” Juras said during her May 13 presentation. “Do you want someone hovering over your backyard with a drone, looking at whatever your kids are doing out in the backyard? That’s why this Legislature clarified, at least to the use of drones, it is a trespass up to 200 feet of your airspace.”
Juras’ presentation drew pushback from conservation and public land access groups. Shortly after the 1.5-hour presentation wrapped up, Montana Wildlife Federation Executive Director Frank Szollosi issued a statement challenging Juras’ interpretation of the state statutes at issue.
“Lieutenant Governor Juras’ credentials and perspective are undisputed, but no lieutenant governor should be able to turn an interpretation of unsettled law into a conclusion simply by presenting it as one,” Szollosi said in the statement. “Lieutenant Governor Juras is entitled to her opinion, and we respect her right to offer it. But how Montana law applies to corner crossing remains a novel legal question that deserves statutory clarity or a Montana-specific court decision.”
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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
